Title: Stories
Rating: K
Summary: It was like a lock on his life; a fence that was far from rickety, but close enough to where he just wanted to tear it down and fall until he arrived back to the place where he began his days.
Author’s Notes: Because I needed to put something up here.

He had decided a long time ago that this was boring. He couldn't even remember the last time he had actually done something constructive, besides counting the stars that would twinkle overhead each night with a fleeting moment of peace that he felt shouldn't take this long to grasp. He felt the weight of the tides pushing in on his person, and let out a noise as his breath hitched and his body shivered with the icy cold wind that felt as though it were tearing at his clammy skin.

It was the same as any other night, although tonight it was especially warm. That was strange. He wondered if someone was coming to see him tonight. Not like it mattered. Not like he cared. Not like it made any difference.

He just... wondered.

“Hmmmm? What language is that, Danny? Cave man?”

Ah. So he was right after all.

Dark eyes flickered for a moment as he rested his tired gaze onto the girl in front of him. He could almost feel the irritation well up in bursts as he watched her sway in front of him as though she were about to fly away on the icy breeze.

"What do you want, Sandy?" he asked, not bothering to answer her ridiculous question. He ran a hand through his hair, just wanting to pull it out as the time took longer and longer to pass him by. "I don't want to talk to you right now. And stop calling me Danny."

Sandy stopped her swaying, and blinked. "But you never want to talk to me." Her form was so still on the sands that she almost looked like a hard stone in his eyes. "And I like Danny."

"And why is that?" he asked, and realized too late that he was interested, if only for a moment. He felt the stars above roll their eyes at him and his stupidity.

Sandy grinned. "What would your reaction be if I told you a secret?" she asked, sitting down next to him, straightening out her long white dress as she plumped down not-so-gracefully in the sand.

He sneered. "As if I would know. Depends on what it is."

For a moment, he forgot about his waiting, and focused on what the girl he had come so far to ignore was telling him.

"Really..." Her face held a certain blankness that was strange for him to see. "How about I tell you my secret, and in exchange, you tell me your own secret."

He felt something in his chest thump, before dismissing it, realizing it was nothing. After all, there was nothing inside of him that could thump anymore. "No deal."

"Why not?" Sandy asked, tilting her head to the side. "Don't like games, do ya?"

"No," he said. "I don't like you."

She shrugged, although for just an instant, he thought he saw her flinch. "I never said you did." The last word seemed to linger in the air as the moon's glare moved their shadows from one side of the world to the other side in which they sat. She twiddled with her fingers as her eyes focused on the grains of sand on her dress, and could already feel the need to wiggle and rub off the pesky particles. "My brother's name was Danny."

It was as though he expected the world to stop turning in that instant, but then realized that there was nothing that was turning anyways. "Oh."

Sandy nodded. "He died before I could."

"All together now, huh?"

She shook her head, a frown echoing on her features. "No." He saw her eyes gleam with something that he knew wasn't there, but decided he wanted to see it, because it made everything just so much more real, and so much more worth his time, and just so much easier. "I haven't seen him since he died. I don't know where he is. I just..." She paused for a moment, and glanced up to look at the stars. "I figure he must be here somewhere. But... I would've seen him by now - I would've felt him by the gate a long time ago. Don't you think so, Danny?" She was suddenly looking at him with eyes that he felt would haunt him forever.

With only a second to spare, he wretched his eyes up to the large door in front of him that he had come to resent ever since the day he had come. It was like a lock on his life; a fence that was far from rickety, but close enough to where he just wanted to tear it down and fall until he arrived back to the place where he began his days. He shook his head. His resolve poured into him like hot water in a kettle. "Sorry. But that's not my name."

"It's not?"

"It's not."

"Then answer my question. I have nothing else to call you than by what I have left from before."

"You never asked me any question. You asked me to tell you a secret."

She smiled with a strike of laughter that made him blink just for the sheer sake of blinking. "So then tell me. I told you mine."

He frowned. "I have nothing to tell," he said. "The only thing I have is my time, and even that seems to be dwindling as more of you idiots come prancing by here."

Sandy blinked. "I'm not an idiot. At least I don't sit here all day and night and mope."

Was that what he was doing all this time? Did he really have a reason to wait for as long as he did? Was his resolve nothing more than steam that would evaporate into the air as forever dripped away, one drop at a time? He felt the painful blow of hate bubble up inside of him as he gripped the sand between his fingers, and hated the way it slipped through without his permission.

With startling strength, he grabbed at Sandy's now dirtied shirt, and brought her closer to himself until she could feel his breath on her face. She shivered.

"What is it with you people? You sit here and blab about yourselves, but when the time comes, and when your story is finished, you expect others to return the story like it was an obligation. This isn't a bedtime story. This isn't a game. Sometimes there is no story to tell!" He threw her as far as he could, and felt pleased as she thumped back against the sand, and she gave a little grunt as she landed. He felt like a monster; a reflection of that person in old fairy tales who just couldn't be saved, because the protagonist just didn't have enough room to fit him into the equation, and because he was just too much of a good guy to be the antagonist.

As she huffed and panted in front of him, her voice became strained as she tried coughing up the sand she had accidentally swallowed. Her coughs became strangled until he felt a grimace form on his brow as she spit up onto the sand. "The only story to tell..." She raised her gaze to his, and he wondered why she looked so tired and weak. It was almost the same position he found himself in sometimes; the one where he found himself just wanting to drift and sleep and rest and find peace. "Are the ones that don't have an ending." She paused. "And after those are told... you don't have to feel bad about giving away what happens next, because by then, the ending you were searching for doesn't seem like such a hard thing to reach."

He stared at her, and with a sigh, he felt the previous anger he had been feeling subside and vanish until he fell to the sand in exhaustion. He narrowly missed sitting in her spit, too. "Once that gate opens, I'm passing through." He pointed to the large door in front of them, letting Sandy follow his finger with her eyes. "Until then, I'm waiting right here until it does. I never even had the choice of staying or leaving. I want that chance back."

"I've seen it open up many times, but only once for me. And you wanna know something, Danny?" She paused, and he was painfully aware of her intentions that it was almost scary. "That's enough for me."

"Good for you!" he exclaimed, letting the sarcasm drip off his lips. "Because we're the same person, right?"

Sandy shook her head, giving a sigh as she pulled her legs up to her stomach, cradling herself. She imagined her mother was there, and that the arms holding her were not her own cold hands, but the ones from her memory she felt looming on the horizon. "I never said that. I never said anything."

He huffed. "That's a load of -"

"The stars are pretty tonight."

He stopped, and looked up to the sky where millions of stars winked down on him, and for a moment he felt naked. "They look the same as any other night. Nothing special or new about it." He wondered why she was here. He wondered what he was doing. He wondered if he was truly achieving his goal. He wondered what it would feel like to touch the stars, and what sand felt like when it wasn't passing through his hands so passively. "It's too bright," he realized, standing up.

"So..." Sandy started, an expression he couldn't point out settling itself on her face. "Was that your secret, Danny?"

He took a few steps back, and let the wind caress his skin as he took a few more steps. "Don't call me Danny. It's not my name."

Sandy smiled as she noticed the sun creeping up from the distance, and wondered if this was what he meant by it being too bright. "But you'll let me call you that anyway."

She turned around, and with a shake of her head and hope renewed in her soul, realized that she was the only one watching the sunrise.